*************************************MORE OLYMPIC MEMORIES: 1992 in Albertville, France: “Dan Jansen signed a poster for me in 1989 saying ‘I hope to see you on the ‘92 team.’ I just missed it.”1994 in Lillehammer, Norway: In the crowd for the women’s figure skating showdown between U.S. figure skaters Tonya Harding and Nancy Kerrigan. “I’ll never forget it. I couldn’t get over how high they jump in the air. I always thought of it being more of an art and what really blew me away was their athleticism.”1998 in Nagano, Japan: “The Olympic Village was a safe haven. That’s where all the teams stay. I remember meeting (hockey great) Wayne Gretzky at the salad bar.” The experience: “The Norway Olympics was the perfect Winter Olympics; every morning you woke up it seemed like there was a fresh layer of snow on the ground. The Nagano Olympics were more of an urban environment.”Athlete’s view: “Keep in mind you don’t get rich speedskating. You hope to win a gold medal someday and get a Snickers commercial. And I really didn’t have a story. I was just a lucky kid who grew up in upstate New York in a great family who liked to skate, skated hard and made a couple of teams.”

*************************************TAMBURRINO’S WEEKLY ROUTINE:Monday: CrossFit workout over lunch hour or before evening class at the gym in the Law School/Eckstein HallTuesday: Rest dayWednesday: CrossFit workoutThursday: 6 a.m. 3-mile run with Ridge Runners (in his Wauwatosa neighborhood) during warmer months; treadmill in colder weatherFriday, Saturday or Sunday night: Hockey game with Guinness team, Waukesha County Men’s Hockey League in all seasonsSaturday or Sunday: Family ski

Tamburrino, director of development at Marquette University, has been playing hockey with the Waukesha County Hockey League since 2003.

But besides conjuring up tales of weekly action with hockey buddies on the local “Guinness” team, Tamburrino, 41, has an even greater wealth of skate stories written in the smile on his face.

The upcoming Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, proved the perfect jumping off point for the former Olympic speedskater to give his take on the spirit and competition of the Games.

The Olympic-size outdoor speedskating oval in West Allis and the lecture halls of Marquette University brought the then 17-year-old to Milwaukee from upstate New York.

“I balanced going to college for two years while training full time and started to compete internationally,” said Tamburrino, who was no stranger to national competition. He found himself increasingly on the road to World Cups and World Championships and decided, after just missing qualifying for the Olympic team in 1992, to put college on hold.

“When I first started traveling with Dan Jansen and Bonnie Blair in the fall of 1992, I was more in awe to be with them as a teammate than to be going to compete myself,” he said. “I grew up with a poster of Dan on my wall.”

With a sharper focus, he made the 1993 U.S. Men’s Speedskating Team and competed alongside his speedskating role models in the 1994 Lillehammer Winter Olympics — his first.

From the opening ceremonies with “76,000 people just going crazy when they called the USA delegation” to watching Jansen skate for a medal, Tamburrino has a goldmine of memories.

“I remember being on the bus after (Jansen’s) disappointing 500-meter finish and asking one of his assistant coaches, ‘What do you think his chances are for the 1,000?’ He said ‘Well, there’s a chance.’”

When Jansen’s gold medal moment in the 1,000-meter finals came, Tamburrino was cheering him on.

“There were many different countries in the venue at the time and the one thing everyone wanted was for Dan to win,” he said.

Finishing the Olympics in the middle of the pack, with personal bests and with the highest American finish for the men’s 1,500-meter was as good as gold for Tamburrino.

Tamburrino, who saw veteran skaters retiring and a chance to step up as a leader, kept training hard and in 1995 sped to a fifth-place finish in the World Championships. In subsequent years he battled through injuries, ever increasing his speed, and a 1998 Nagano Olympics team spot was his.

“I was able to be top 10, 11, 12. I’ll never forget, I had a world record for like five minutes,” he laughed.

He also coached speedskating for seven more years, which he said was a great way to bridge the gap and proved inspiring as he helped a young crop of skaters on their own way up the ranks.

“I was thrilled to coach these athletes and some have gone on and are competing at the next Olympics” (including Mitch Whitmore), Tamburrino said.

Besides his current job in corporate and foundation relations at Marquette, Tamburrino has grabbed onto another challenge since working for the Milwaukee Brewers from 2004-11. Many of his colleagues there had law degrees and he has chosen to pursue a sports law emphasis as he heads toward the finish line at Marquette University Law School by spring 2015.

Hectic schedule aside, he makes sure to get in running, CrossFit and the weekly ice hockey games he’s “hooked” on.

“I enjoy exercise that is high intensity. It is a big stress reliever,” he said. “I’m thrilled if I can do five (workouts) in a week. If I don’t get three in I get crabby.”

And the whole winter sports vibe is alive and well in the Tamburrino household, with the family pursuing outdoor activities together.

Downhill skiing lessons and skating lessons at the Pettit National Ice Center are taking hold with their three young children. And thanks to dad they can skate right outside their back door.

“Every year I put in a 24x48-foot skating rink. I frame it out and put a liner down and freeze it. It takes up our whole backyard,” Tamburrino said.

Barb Zaferos is Research Editor overseeing the Top 25 lists and People on the Move for the Milwaukee Business Journal.

Industries:

Comments

If you are commenting using a Facebook account, your profile information may be displayed with your comment depending on your privacy settings. By leaving the 'Post to Facebook' box selected, your comment will be published to your Facebook profile in addition to the space below.